{"id":50267,"date":"2016-11-21T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=50267"},"modified":"2017-12-29T04:11:41","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T04:11:41","slug":"feature-devilment-11-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-devilment-11-16\/","title":{"rendered":"DEVILMENT – Waltzing Under The Thunder (November 2016) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEVILMENT – Waltzing Under The Thunder<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

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Devilment (l-r): Nick Johnson, Lauren Francis, Colin Parks, Dani Filth and Matt Alston<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nIpswich, Suffolk, England-based symphonic gothic metal outfit Devilment \u2013 fronted by Cradle Of Filth mainman Dani Filth \u2013 wrote compositions in support of second full-length studio album II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em> during 2015, subsequently recording during 2016. Eleventh Cradle Of Filth studio affair Hammer Of The Witches<\/em> arrived in July of 2015, with press commitments as well as treks to America, Europe and Russia taking place during II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em>\u2019 inception.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously had to fit everything in-between, but we managed to get around that quite easily,\u201d Dani reckons. \u201cSo, I guess it took about five to six months, on and off, to write the material. I\u2019m fortunate in that Devilment all live in my locality, whereas Cradle Of Filth are literally spread across the known galaxy, so it\u2019s a lot easier to get to rehearsals in-between touring with Cradle. Devilment went into the studio while I was actually touring in the States, but we demoed everything a lot, so we had no worry there. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe also worked a lot on the material while we were in the studio. We went \u2018Let\u2019s dissect this song, because let\u2019s be honest: it\u2019s not as strong.\u2019 We didn\u2019t want any filler on it. We could\u2019ve put another two tracks on the record, but we wanted to go for quality over quantity. And yeah, we worked really hard, stripping back choruses, and just doing things up, and looking at how samples and keyboard sounds complement the guitars, and things like that. We were just really put through our paces by the producer Scott Atkins, who worked very, very hard on it. Yeah, we\u2019re very pleased with the results. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019ve got a new drummer. It was very amicable, the split with Aaron (Boast), because Aaron our previous drummer was moving house, and had a new job, and a lot of other commitments. So, he passed over the baton to Matt (Alston). He actually found Matt for us, and I still play soccer with… Well, not at the present because he\u2019s broken his arm… But I still play soccer and go drinking etcetera with Aaron. So, as I said, very amicable. Obviously, we played on our strengths with the writing from the first record, but most of the record… Well, half of the record \u2013 The Great And Secret Show<\/em> (November 2014) \u2013 was already written before Lauren and Colin came onboard. With this album, they were there from the beginning, and so I think that\u2019s why we see a stronger performance from both people. Yeah, it\u2019s just bigger, better, darker, and more gothic. It\u2019s more experimental, but not so experimental that it\u2019s drifted away from what people expect of Devilment. I mean, it\u2019s not chalk and cheese between both albums. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, we played on the strengths. There\u2019s a lot of the groove and the heaviness and the catchy choruses carried over, but we have obviously… I mean, songs like \u2018Hitchcock Blonde\u2019 and \u2018Dea Della Morte\u2019, \u2018Shine On Sophie Moone\u2019 and \u2018Full Dark, No Stars\u2019 etcetera are very different from one another, henceforth why we released three singles prior to the album. One song doesn\u2019t really do the album justice. The material\u2019s quite eclectic, do you know what I mean? If we just released \u2018Under The Thunder\u2019, people would be expecting the whole album to be nine or ten songs of that, so I think by releasing \u2018Hitchcock Blonde\u2019 and \u2018Full Dark, No Stars\u2019, it gives you quite a good window into what the album is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing sessions for II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em> were a collaborative affair, the likes of keyboardist \/ vocalist Lauren Francis present from the outset. \u201cDefinitely,\u201d the singer affirms. \u201cIt\u2019s collaborative, despite what anybody says, in both my bands, and even more so now than ever before. And yeah, this is the first time that I actually got some lyrics from Lauren. Normally, I think girl\u2019s lyrics are about ponies and unicorns and rainbows, and stuff like that. I\u2019m not being derogatory, but they are. <\/p>\n

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Dani Filth<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cI got these lyrics through and I was going to rewrite them, but I thought \u2018Well, no. That actually fits in with the track.\u2019 They were for her part in \u2018Full Dark, No Stars\u2019. It\u2019s a real pain sometimes because of the cadence of how they seem, and trying to make words fit. This was the very first time ever in my whole career that I thought \u2018Fuck it. Yeah, let\u2019s just keep what she\u2019s written.\u2019 It\u2019s great and it works very well, so I wrote lyrics around what she had written.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen on some occasions, for example, like the chorus of \u2018Under The Thunder\u2019. We\u2019d both written a melody for the chorus and we couldn\u2019t decide which one was the better one, or which one worked the best. In the end, we just went \u2018Okay. We\u2019ll have mine to start with, and you can have the second half.\u2019 We just used sort of half of each. So yeah, there was a lot of interaction. Like I say, on even keyboard samples and synth sounds. You can come up with a great synth sound, but then you can put a rhythm guitar over it and they can cancel each other out, or they just don\u2019t work. So, there was a lot of experimentation as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em> will inevitably be critiqued against predecessor The Great And Secret Show<\/em>. \u201cHopefully, I wouldn\u2019t have to,\u201d Dani muses. \u201cYeah though, it\u2019s just got more variation. The musicianship\u2019s obviously gone up a level as well. We\u2019re more comfortable with what we\u2019re doing, so we\u2019ve got some experimentation on there. Yeah, I just think everything is better, and that\u2019s just from a lot of hard work and just finding our feet with the band. A lot of people have just written this off as a vanity project; that it would just be one album, and that\u2019d be it. I think a lot of people are quite surprised that it got to album number two, and I think that\u2019s why we\u2019ve got that subtitle II. It\u2019s almost like two fingers up to say \u2018Look, it\u2019s a second record. It\u2019s a proper band. Believe it,\u2019 and I think people are coming onboard a lot more. Well, I know they are. Loads more press, and loads more interest from all and sundry. So yeah, it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

An array of dark influences and themes underpin the effort. \u201cThe Mephisto Waltzes<\/em>,\u201d the vocalist begins. \u201cThe title is inspired by Franz Liszt, who basically wrote four piano pieces which concern themselves with the story of Faust. Faust is a guy that sold his soul to the Devil, and tried getting it back. The Mephisto Waltz<\/em> is also an American horror movie (1971), which took its title from the work of Franz Liszt as well, and is also a track by The Misfits. It works very well with the artwork by Elena. You\u2019ve got this woman on the front who seems to be doing this sort of strange tarantella, almost this dance of death. It suggests that all of the tracks on the album are linked to devilish endeavours, hence the band being called Devilment. At heart though, it\u2019s essentially about dark emotions that are overcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got \u2018JudasStein\u2019, which is about justice, and this creature being a magnet for all the sins of the world. Then you\u2019ve got \u2018Hitchcock Blonde\u2019, which is pretty self-explanatory \u2013 about infatuation. You\u2019ve got retribution, you\u2019ve got oppression, obsession, fanaticism, death. You\u2019ve got all of these very dark emotions that underline and underpin the record, but I think the record is very cathartic, as in it\u2019s about a process. It\u2019s like being in a cocoon, to come out better on the other side. It\u2019s about overcoming all of these bad feelings, and then coming out positive on the other side. About overcoming depression, overcoming infatuation, or dealing with it, etcetera, etcetera. The process of writing that was cathartic in itself, because it is about getting all of your demons out \u2013 your musical demons out, your lyrical demons out \u2013 and cleansing yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deciding whether authored lyrical content is more suitable for either Devilment or Cradle Of Filth isn\u2019t difficult for Dani. \u201cSometimes things suggest themselves,\u201d he reasons. \u201c\u2018Shine On Sophie Moone\u2019 was a title that was destined for the band Temple Of The Black Moon that I was in, and it just seemed right. Don\u2019t ask me why, but it just did. Sometimes the music suggests stuff, or I give people ideas and that\u2019s suggestive enough for them to begin doing musical endeavours from it. Yeah though, there\u2019s definitely a bridge between the two. I definitely go, in my mind, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll write something down.\u2019 I always keep notes, all of the time. I\u2019ve got loads of books; little grimoires where I just write down ideas, and words that I like, or sentences, or bits of poetry every now and then. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be bits that I\u2019ll definitely mark off as \u2018Well, that\u2019s definitely Cradle Of Filth. That is not Devilment.\u2019 I think Cradle are more akin to… If you\u2019re going to be blunt about it and decisive, it\u2019s a little bit more old school. Like Byron, Shelley, Polidori, you know. Arthur Machen, that sort of thing. Devilment are way more modern; Robert Aickman, Sylvia Plath, Tim Burton, that sort of thing. It\u2019s a little bit more mischievous. Even the title Devilment means Machiavellian mischief, so it\u2019s not Devilment with fucking massive inverted crosses, skulls, and sacrificial altars. It\u2019s Devilment with a little wry wink and sardonic smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

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II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em>\u2019 front cover artwork was designed by Elena Vizerskaya, as the frontman referenced earlier. \u201cOriginally, I wanted to use these pieces \u2013 or cover these pieces \u2013 for a Cradle album,\u201d he informs. \u201cThat was for The Manticore And Other Horrors<\/em> (October 2012) like four or five years ago, but there was an internal dispute among the band. The guitarist didn\u2019t want to use them. He said \u2018What\u2019s that got to do with Cradle Of Filth?\u2019 Little imagination. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, it\u2019s all good for Devilment because I thought \u2018What are we gonna do for artwork for this album?\u2019 Then I remembered Elena, and I contacted her and her agent. I found out that most of the work was still available \u2013 all of the pieces that we really liked \u2013 so we chose bits that we thought best represented the band. I mean, she didn\u2019t do them specifically for the band, but what we did to integrate them into the whole… Obviously, we chose them from the thousands of works that she has done. We chose six really, really great bits, and we integrated them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe album title came from the album cover. \u2018Dea Della Morte\u2019 came from the album covers, because it\u2019s like a dual cover; if you turn it over, there\u2019s two covers, basically. Also, there was a guy called Dan Goldsworthy who was responsible for the art direction, and putting lyrics in the booklet together. With the special editions, there\u2019s obviously expanded artwork, so he came up with some other pieces that complemented Elena\u2019s, and also for lyric pages, etcetera, etcetera. Between the two of them, I think we\u2019ve got a really great looking piece of product. It\u2019s a really great looking booklet. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important, because in this day and age, a lot of people don\u2019t even bother buying CDs \u2013 even though they\u2019re the cheapest that they\u2019ve ever been. CDs are like \u00a38; that\u2019s like the price of a bottle of wine for Christ\u2019s sake, and that will go down. There\u2019s a lot of stuff on Amazon nowadays that\u2019s been out a year, and they\u2019re like \u00a34. That\u2019s \u00a34 for a CD, and yet people are still like \u2018I\u2019m not gonna buy that. I\u2019m just gonna download it.\u2019 They don\u2019t even appreciate it, because they\u2019ve downloaded it. If you buy something, you expect to get something great out of it. I think that our fans are appreciative of the fact that whether it\u2019s Cradle or whether it\u2019s Devilment, the artwork\u2019s always top notch and the lyrics are top notch. Whether they like them or not is another matter, but there is something extra they get aside from the music that feels like quality, that feels like they can be immersed in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording sessions took place between March and July 2016 at Grindstone Studios in Ipswich, Suffolk, Scott Atkins handling recording, mixing, and mastering. Naturally, Dani has warm feelings towards Scott. \u201cGreat,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cWe\u2019re using him for the new Cradle album. Cradle go into the studio next week. This time next week, actually. Martin\u2019s (Martin \u0160karoupka) beginning his drums for the new Cradle album, whereas I go out on tour with Devilment the week after. We demo everything extensively, though. I don\u2019t have to be in there looking over everybody\u2019s shoulders, which is a good thing. Yeah though, if I can differentiate between Devilment and Cradle, Scott can too. People say \u2018You\u2019re using the same people.\u2019 Well, yeah, because they know the fallibilities. They know the strengths and the weaknesses of both bands. They know more about it than a stranger coming in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not just subtle differences but massive differences. The bands play in different keys, for example (laughs). So, there are differences there from the off, and that just helps make the bridge between both bands \u2013 the gulf \u2013 even bigger, by having someone who\u2019s got their eye on both bands. So yeah, it\u2019s great. He\u2019s a great engineer, a great producer, a great mixer. We don\u2019t even take it anywhere to master it, any more. We used to spend a fortune getting people from America to master it. The last time we went to a big studio in London, we must\u2019ve spent thousands of pounds on mastering, and it sounded shit. So, it\u2019s just better to do it all in-house. Scott works a lot on the material as well \u2013 he\u2019s a real grafter. We don\u2019t work weekends, which is great really because it gives you a breather. We\u2019ll put in like 16-hour days, most days of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Variations exist between the composer\u2019s vocal performances in Devilment and Cradle Of Filth. \u201cI don\u2019t really know how to answer that, to be fair,\u201d he ponders. \u201cIt\u2019s different from Cradle Of Filth, obviously. Like I say, it\u2019s in a different key. When I sing high in Devilment, it\u2019s gotta be that much higher. If I really want to do them, it literally has to be higher. When I did it, dogs came running (laughs). Yeah though, it\u2019s more legible, I suppose. It\u2019s less black metal. It\u2019s more rock, isn\u2019t it? So, it\u2019s gonna be different. I think the interaction between Lauren and myself works very well as well with that kind of beauty and the beast concept, although it meanders as well. It\u2019s not just about singing along together. It\u2019s sort of like call and response, in a lot of places. Although she doesn\u2019t appear on every single track, she appears on just about enough as not to make it too saccharine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Devilment (l-r): Lauren Francis (seated), Matt Alston, Nick Johnson, Dani Filth
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A music video themed in the vein of 1960 psychological horror movie Psycho<\/em> was filmed for the track \u2018Hitchcock Blonde\u2019. \u201cWe filmed it in a hotel in Ipswich,\u201d Dani shares. \u201cIt\u2019s literally slap bang in the centre of Ipswich. We filmed it over a couple of days, but it was three days. We did reconnaissance for the first day; myself, the producer, and some people that were involved in the making of. It was a bit of exploring, and working out where we were going to set everything up. Electric had to be run in, because there was no electric in there. It\u2019s been deserted for about 20 years I think, but it is literally as central to Ipswich as you can get. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was filmed over a couple of days, the hottest days of the year. There were thousands of people outside, on the streets, and then there was us dressed to the hilt, in our stuff (laughs), sweltering, feeling a little bit like ghosts. It was such a big, sort of vacant space that we were in and looking at. Being in such a central position, it was a very weird juxtaposition \u2013 a very strange contrast \u2013 and the place was definitely haunted. We checked up on Google. We found out that Lord Nelson stayed there, and in his day there had been a big fire in one of the wings. Some of them died \u2013 a maid servant. We went to look for her, which was a little uninspiring. As soon as we had been there though, phones started going mental like they had been touched by E.T. Our guitarist\u2019s (Colin Parks) phone literally blew up on him, and gave him an electric shock. Yeah, it was all very weird. A fire alarm went off just completely randomly in a completely different part of the building. So yeah, very bizarre, but it was great fun. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there\u2019s really not much more to tell really. The whole place was very labyrinthine, because obviously they had rebuilt certain parts. So, it was a bit higgledy piggledy, and there were staircases where there shouldn\u2019t be staircases, and oddly shaped rooms. Yeah, I remember the actual hotel from when I was young. It was open, and it was a posh place to be. You could have afternoon tea there. I remember going to a party there, but obviously it\u2019s fallen into a state of disrepair because it\u2019s such a big place, and it would cost millions to sort it out. There\u2019s doves, pigeons, and all kinds of things living in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further music videos to promote II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em> might be recorded. \u201cI can\u2019t say at the present,\u201d the lyricist discloses. \u201cI don\u2019t know. We did three for the album, which I think was a good window into what the album sounds like. Maybe, though. Hopefully. We did the same thing for The Great And Secret Show<\/em>; we did \u2018Sanity Hits A (Perfect) Zero\u2019 about seven months in. I think so. The window for… Obviously, we\u2019re undertaking this UK tour in a few weeks time (from December 6th to December 19th), so our next window for Devilment is four months between delivery of the Cradle album and Cradle\u2019s world tour next year. So, I guess as a sort of prelude to that, we\u2019ll probably tackle another video. So yeah, undoubtedly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cradle Of Filth\u2019s 12th studio opus, meanwhile, will hearken towards both older and newer fare from the assortment. \u201cFrom what I do know, it\u2019s a cross between Hammer Of The Witches<\/em> and Cruelty And The Beast<\/em> (May 1998),\u201d Dani judges. \u201cIt\u2019s very melodic, very fast… Well, it\u2019s not all fast. There\u2019s some big, heavy tracks on there. Very ornate. There\u2019s some great fucking riffs on there, amazing. Yeah, can\u2019t really speak much about Cradle. Obviously, it\u2019s not a Cradle interview. That will come in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A release in September 2017 is being targeted. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be delivered the second week of May, and the reason for…,\u201d the mainman begins. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s not being pushed out or anything like that. Whatever we release, it\u2019s usually about two years afterwards. I think it\u2019s just the fact that I\u2019ve got another band makes it look like it turns around quite quickly, but it has to be released in September because of new management planning this big world tour which has to start in America on a certain date. So, the album has to be delivered and released… It all has to fall into a certain place. You can\u2019t just go \u2018Oh, we missed our deadline. Sorry,\u2019 because otherwise, you miss your slot with releasing and with the record company, and everything they\u2019ve got planned. So yeah, we\u2019re free to do what we want for a certain amount of months, but then it all has to fit into a schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

II: The Mephisto Waltzes<\/em> was released on November 18th, 2016 via Nuclear Blast.<\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2016. All promotional photographs by Lala Photography at JoLi Studios.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEVILMENT – Waltzing Under The Thunder Anthony Morgan November 2016 Devilment (l-r): Nick Johnson, Lauren Francis, Colin Parks, Dani Filth and Matt Alston Ipswich, Suffolk, England-based symphonic gothic metal outfit Devilment \u2013 fronted by Cradle Of Filth mainman Dani Filth \u2013 wrote compositions in support of second full-length studio album II: The Mephisto Waltzes during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3211,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devilment","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50267"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64888,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50267\/revisions\/64888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}